Welch, West Virginia

Welch is a city in West Virginia and the county seat of McDowell County. Welch was founded in 1893 and named for Confederate States Army veteran and surveyor Isaiah A. Welch, who helped to establish the town. In the first half of the 20th century, due to the opening of railroad lines and coal mines, Welch became a prosperous city, and coal production peaked in 1950. During the 1960s, Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, in efforts to tackle poverty in the region, sent the nation's first modern food stamps to the people of McDowell County, making the state solidly Democratic. During the 1970s and 1980s, the decline of steel production led to the city's decline. In 2016, Welch had a population of 1,816 people.